Graphic Online BY: News Desk Report 30.5k Shares 705 The Ghana COCOBOD has been urged to introduce alternative cash ‘intercrops’ in order to accrue over $5.0 billion annually. According to the Chamber for District and Community Industry, this would drastically improve the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), help improve the value of the cedi for a longer period, boost the processing industry while creating between 80,000 and 100,000 direct jobs and over 400,000 indirect jobs. “The cocoa sector, for many years, has become the backbone or support for our exchange rate stability. The government, through COCOBOD every year, issues a syndicated loan between $1billion and $1.5billion, purposely for the forward sale of cocoa for a particular crop season. This has curbed the seasonal sharp depreciation of the cedi, improved our balance of payment as well as the reserve position of the country.”